Ole Miss/Freeze one quarterback "miss" away from being Auburn/Malzahn

Bamabuzzard · Sep 18, 2016

After watching our game against Ole Miss yesterday I realized Ole Miss/Hugh Freeze are one "miss" at the quarterback position away from being Auburn/Gus Malzahn. During yesterday's game Kelly made more than a handful of passes that were NFL caliber, "tiny window" type throws. Freeze's offense is completely dictated on having a superior/elite quarterback, much like Malzahns. Look at Auburn without Cam Newton and Nick Marshall and look at it without. It looks like a high school offense. Freeze's offense is in the same vein

My point to all this is I'm not too concerned (for the future) about Ole Miss being a thorn in our side and us struggling to beat them year in and year out. They paid for one great recruiting class that is now gone and yesterday our offense with a true freshman qb, two sophomore rb's, sophomore wr and first year starting center, moved the ball at will against them. THE ONLY thing that kept them in that game was Kelly and self inflicted mistakes by a young Bama team. Those type qb's don't grow on trees and to think they will be able to keep replacing one elite qb with another year in and year out is wishful thinking.

I know the first response will be "They've got a 5* waiting in the wings now to replace Kelly". Currently they have a "5 star" Shea Patterson waiting in the wings. He's from Shreveport (where I live). He's supposed to be the "perfect" spread quarterback. I'll just say this from watching him play and hearing other coaches around here who coached against him. He doesn't like contact. He'll have his chance to live up to the 5* rating but my money is on he won't be as good as Kelly and they've had to have elite "Kelly like" performances to beat us or be in a position to beat us.

And most important, Bama won't be going into the Ole Miss for the next two/three years breaking in a new quarterback. Let that sink in for a moment.

TideEngineer08 · Sep 18, 2016

They had a massive advantage at QB, a senior all-American vs a true freshman. And we still beat them.

No I'm not worried about future Ole Miss. I do give them credit for being one of the very few teams that would not wilt in the face of a 45-6 run by us though.

Bamabuzzard · Sep 18, 2016

TideEngineer08 said:
They had a massive advantage at QB, a senior all-American vs a true freshman. And we still beat them.

No I'm not worried about future Ole Miss. I do give them credit for being one of the very few teams that would not wilt in the face of a 45-6 run by us though.

Freeze is a pretty good coach. But the drop off on the defensive side of the ball this year is astonishing, and I'm not even factoring in the injuries. I watched them play before all the injuries. The "paid for" recruiting class' departure is evident. Young mistakes by Bama and Kelly's talent are the only things that kept that game from being a blood bath. But as Jalen got more comfortable and our OL kept playing the better we got and the worse Ole Miss got. Or maybe that was the 4 20 oz Miller Lite's I'd consumed by that time?

81usaf92 · Sep 18, 2016

Bamabuzzard said:
After watching our game against Ole Miss yesterday I realized Ole Miss/Hugh Freeze are one "miss" at the quarterback position away from being Auburn/Gus Malzahn. During yesterday's game Kelly made more than a handful of passes that were NFL caliber, "tiny window" type throws. Freeze's offense is completely dictated on having a superior/elite quarterback, much like Malzahns. Look at Auburn without Cam Newton and Nick Marshall and look at it without. It looks like a high school offense. Freeze's offense is in the same vein

My point to all this is I'm not too concerned (for the future) about Ole Miss being a thorn in our side and us struggling to beat them year in and year out. They paid for one great recruiting class that is now gone and yesterday our offense with a true freshman qb, two sophomore rb's, sophomore wr and first year starting center, moved the ball at will against them. THE ONLY thing that kept them in that game was Kelly and self inflicted mistakes by a young Bama team. Those type qb's don't grow on trees and to think they will be able to keep replacing one elite qb with another year in and year out is wishful thinking.

I know the first response will be "They've got a 5* waiting in the wings now to replace Kelly". Currently they have a "5 star" Shea Patterson waiting in the wings. He's from Shreveport (where I live). He's supposed to be the "perfect" spread quarterback. I'll just say this from watching him play and hearing other coaches around here who coached against him. He doesn't like contact. He'll have his chance to live up to the 5* rating but my money is on he won't be as good as Kelly and they've had to have elite "Kelly like" performances to beat us or be in a position to beat us.

And most important, Bama won't be going into the Ole Miss for the next two/three years breaking in a new quarterback. Let that sink in for a moment.

It looks like he under throws a lot.

JBama_in_PCOLA · Sep 18, 2016

Big step back next year for them. This is literally their last shot at Alabama with the current coaching staff. We got their best shot. Even better than the shot they game FSU. We were down and beaten. Then 45-6.

Sent from my wife's old iPhone 6 until I get my 7+ using Tapatalk

CrimsonEyeshade · Sep 18, 2016

Agree to a point. Two years ago, they beat us with a Division II talent at QB and a very good defense, and even before that Ole Miss under Freeze has never played us timidly. There will be a potentially dramatic drop-off next year in Oxford. But under Freeze, I don't ever expect the Rebs to play afraid.

tide power fan · Sep 18, 2016

I think the errors that Kelly made may have cost them the game, I knew coming into this game they had a very weak defense, I never expected them to score as many points on us as they did. We should be happy we got our of Oxford with a win, now I don't have to listen to ole miss fans for the rest of the year.

2003TIDE · Sep 18, 2016

< Completely following then realized they beat us with Bo Wallace. Honestly I think the 6'4" receivers give us more fits than the QBs.

CrimsonEyeshade · Sep 18, 2016

tide power fan said:
I think the errors that Kelly made may have cost them the game, I knew coming into this game they had a very weak defense, I never expected them to score as many points on us as they did. We should be happy we got our of Oxford with a win, now I don't have to listen to ole miss fans for the rest of the year.

TPF, I suspect there will be little drop off in volume. Take two slugs of bourbon and repeat after me: We wuz robbed!

NationalTitles18 · Sep 18, 2016

81usaf92 said:
It looks like he under throws a lot.

None of that counts because it happened in high school a few years ago.

Krymsonman · Sep 18, 2016

I'm very happy to get out of Ole Miss with the win, and Coach Saban has plenty to work on to keep us focused. I don't know what it is about Kelly, but he just has a knack for having huge games against us. It's like we're his main focus for the entire year. A lot of times he just throws up the deep ball and it somehow manages to find his guy, covered or not. I'm glad this is the last time we have to face him. Krymsonman

dWarriors88 · Sep 18, 2016

Lol, op said nick Marshall was an NFL caliber QB. I can't even.

Padreruf · Sep 18, 2016

I will let the "cheating" crap sit on the sidelines...time will tell. "On the field" Hugh Freeze continues to put a really, top-notch product. His challenge now is that his "d" is getting weaker due to lack of depth. But his offense is outstanding...we have a fairly good "d" and they shredded us. Give them their credit...I am glad that game is over and we won!

Bamabuzzard · Sep 18, 2016

dWarriors88 said:
Lol, op said nick Marshall was an NFL caliber QB. I can't even.

Actually that's not what I said.

Freeze's offense is completely dictated on having a superior/elite quarterback, much like Malzahns. Look at Auburn without Cam Newton and Nick Marshall and look at it without.

I said Kelly was an NFL caliber QB, not Marshall. But, Marshall's skill set is dang near a perfect fit for Freeze/Malzahn type offenses. Accurate enough on the college level to burn you passing and athletic enough to run you out of the stadium.

crimsonaudio · Sep 18, 2016

I dunno - Kelly makes the throws, sure, but they beat us with Bo Wallace. Let that sink in for a second.

And Kelly didn't play on the defense that stuff Bama for most of the first half.

Admit it - OM is a well-coached team that plays at 100%. If they have Bama's quality of depth the game might have ended differently yesterday.

BamaMoon · Sep 18, 2016

Glad we could stop them this year...

Not worried going forward because I think the NCAA will take care of that!

TideMan09 · Sep 18, 2016

Yup..And both Gus & Freeze recruits top heavy for their offenses, that leaves the D side of the ball picking up what scraps are left over, that will never ever work in the SEC against Bama or the LSU's of college football..You have to be able to rotate guys in on the D side of the ball to allow you Boy's to catch their breath as the games grinds on against the spread offenses..Freeze & Gus helped create this HUNH Offense monster we're all dealing with now, Bama has adapted to it, it's kinda ironing that monster they helped to create is biting them on the backside now..

81usaf92 · Sep 18, 2016

crimsonaudio said:
I dunno - Kelly makes the throws, sure, but they beat us with Bo Wallace. Let that sink in for a second.

And Kelly didn't play on the defense that stuff Bama for most of the first half.

Admit it - OM is a well-coached team that plays at 100%. If they have Bama's quality of depth the game might have ended differently yesterday.

The 2014 game was a physical game that Ole Miss survived because of a late fumble by Christian jones and a very conservative play by Wallace. It was also 2 key injuries and a very windy 1st quarter that played against us. Had AG made the FG in the 1st quarter we probably aren't so aggressive on the final drive since it would've been 23-20. They didn't beat us because of Wallace they beat us by fortunate bounces.

2015: Kelly was a major part of equation but so was the 5 TOs and bad calls.

2016: more of Kelly and us setting up a game plan.

BamaBoySince89 · Sep 18, 2016

81usaf92 said:
The 2014 game was a physical game that Ole Miss survived because of a late fumble by Christian jones and a very conservative play by Wallace. It was also 2 key injuries and a very windy 1st quarter that played against us. Had AG made the FG in the 1st quarter we probably aren't so aggressive on the final drive since it would've been 23-20. They didn't beat us because of Wallace they beat us by fortunate bounces.

Drake's injury took away from our offensive game planning, it looked like we became one-dimensional

Bamabuzzard · Sep 18, 2016

crimsonaudio said:
I dunno - Kelly makes the throws, sure, but they beat us with Bo Wallace. Let that sink in for a second.

And Kelly didn't play on the defense that stuff Bama for most of the first half.

Admit it - OM is a well-coached team that plays at 100%. If they have Bama's quality of depth the game might have ended differently yesterday.

He is a good coach and my original post isn't about the quality coach I think he is or isn't. I think he's a good coach, but there are realities about the style offense he runs and about being at Ole Miss that will keep them from being a year in and year out threat to Alabama as they have for the last three years. I'm not saying they will go back to being as easy of an out as they were before Freeze. I think they will "settle in" to being a consistent 8-4 per year team with the occasional 6-6/7-5 down year and every once in a while they'll get that "magical year" of 10 wins.

But the odds of them continuing this level of success (assuming they stop buying recruiting classes) year in and year out isn't likely. Especially seeing how other teams with similar QB dependent offenses (Miss St, aTm, Auburn) have taken a step backwards the moment the quarterback position dipped. I think Freeze and Ole Miss are susceptible to the same volatility. That is unless they continue to buy recruiting classes, which I think at this point is very hard not to admit that has been going on, and is a BIG reason for their sudden surge in recruiting and success on the field. They land the #5 class in 2013, then coincidentally see a drastic improvement on the field, then three years later land another top 5 class (#4 class in the nation) and within months after have a former player admit during the NFL draft to routinely receiving money from the coaching staff. My guess is once this NCAA investigation is finished, Ole Miss will more than likely return to their "normal" level of recruiting and it will be reflected on the field.

But as I've lived and learned before. I reserve the right to be wrong if time proves me wrong. :biggrin2:

Ole Miss/Freeze one quarterback "miss" away from being Auburn/Malzahn

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